Communication Devices and Methods for Operating a Communication Device

ABSTRACT

A communication device may include a message generator configured to generate a message in accordance with a command set to use a communication service provided by a communication session setup protocol; and a modem circuit coupled to the message generator and configured to operate in accordance with the message generated by the message generator; wherein the message generator is configured to generate the message comprising a command to at least one of control or establish an Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem service.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This present application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.13/803,023, filed Mar. 14, 2013, entitled “COMMUNICATION DEVICES ANDMETHODS FOR OPERATING A COMMUNICATION DEVICE,” which claims priority toU.S. Application No. 61/657,063, which was filed Jun. 8, 2012, entitled“COMMUNICATION DEVICES AND METHODS FOR OPERATING A COMMUNICATIONDEVICE,” the entire disclosures of which are hereby incorporated byreference in their entireties for all purposes, except for thosesections, if any, that are inconsistent with this specification.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Various aspects of the disclosure relate generally to communicationdevices and to methods for operating a communication device.

BACKGROUND

The so called Internet Protocol (IP) Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) providescommunication services via the Internet Protocol and IMS communicationservice calls are usually controlled via the Session Initiation Protocol(SIP). Some IMS communication services can be identified by means of socalled IMS Communication Service Identifiers (ICSIs). Moreover, socalled mobile terminations (which illustratively include modem hardwareincluding one or more transmitters and one or more receivers for interdevice communications, also referred to as MT) can be controlled by a socalled terminal equipment (which illustratively includes hardwareconfigured to interact with an end user and which includes one or moreapplication processors and means for user interaction, also referred toas TE) through so called AT commands. AT commands exist for controllingvoice calls, supplementary communication services and short messagingservices as non-IMS services. However, conventionally, an AT command cancontrol only a single voice call. Currently new AT commands are beingdefined by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standardizationgroup for dialing Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) to be used by IMSservices.

SUMMARY

A communication device may include a message generator configured togenerate a message in accordance with a command set to use acommunication service provided by a communication session setupprotocol; and a modem circuit coupled to the message generator andconfigured to operate in accordance with the message generated by themessage generator; wherein the message generator is configured togenerate the message comprising a command to at least one of control orestablish an Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem service.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the drawings, like reference characters generally refer to the sameparts throughout the different views. The drawings are not necessarilyto scale, emphasis instead generally being placed upon illustrating theprinciples of the invention. In the following description, variousembodiments of the invention are described with reference to thefollowing drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 shows a communication device in accordance with various aspectsof this disclosure;

FIG. 2 shows a communication network in accordance with various aspectsof this disclosure;

FIG. 3 shows an implementation of the communication device of FIG. 1 inaccordance with various aspects of this disclosure;

FIG. 4 shows a message flow diagram in accordance with various aspectsof this disclosure;

FIG. 5 shows a message flow diagram in accordance with various aspectsof this disclosure;

FIG. 6 shows a flow diagram illustrating a method for operating acommunication device in accordance with various aspects of thisdisclosure; and

FIG. 7 shows a flow diagram illustrating a method for operating acommunication device in accordance with various aspects of thisdisclosure.

DESCRIPTION

The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawingsthat show, by way of illustration, specific details and embodiments inwhich the invention may be practiced.

The word “exemplary” is used herein to mean “serving as an example,instance, or illustration”. Any embodiment or design described herein as“exemplary” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred oradvantageous over other embodiments or designs.

The word “over” used with regards to a deposited material formed “over”a side or surface, may be used herein to mean that the depositedmaterial may be formed “directly on”, e.g. in direct contact with, theimplied side or surface. The word “over” used with regards to adeposited material formed “over” a side or surface, may be used hereinto mean that the deposited material may be formed “indirectly on” theimplied side or surface with one or more additional layers beingarranged between the implied side or surface and the deposited material.

In various aspects of this disclosure, a “circuit” may be understood asany kind of a logic implementing entity, which may be special purposecircuitry or a processor executing software stored in a memory,firmware, or any combination thereof. Thus, in various aspects of thisdisclosure, a “circuit” may be a hard-wired logic circuit or aprogrammable logic circuit such as a programmable processor, for examplea microprocessor (for example a Complex Instruction Set Computer (CISC)processor or a Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) processor). A“circuit” may also be a processor executing software, for example anykind of computer program, for example a computer program using a virtualmachine code such as for example Java. Any other kind of implementationof the respective functions which will be described in more detail belowmay also be understood as a “circuit” in accordance with an alternativeaspect of this disclosure.

Various aspects of this disclosure are provided for devices, and variousaspects of this disclosure are provided for methods. It will beunderstood that basic properties of the devices also hold for themethods and vice versa. Therefore, for sake of brevity, duplicatedescription of such properties may be omitted.

It will be understood that any property described herein for a specificdevice may also hold for any device described herein. It will beunderstood that any property described herein for a specific method mayalso hold for any method described herein.

The term “protocol” is intended to include any piece of software, thatis provided to implement part of any layer of the communicationdefinition.

A memory used in various aspects of this disclosure may be a volatilememory, for example a DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) or anon-volatile memory, for example a PROM (Programmable Read Only Memory),an EPROM (Erasable PROM), EEPROM (Electrically Erasable PROM), or aflash memory, for example, a floating gate memory, a charge trappingmemory, an MRAM (Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory) or a PCRAM(Phase Change Random Access Memory).

It has been found out that the conventional AT commands suffer fromseveral disadvantages, such as:

-   -   Existing AT commands cannot specify the type of IMS service to        be controlled.    -   Existing AT commands cannot specify media to be used by IMS        services.    -   Existing AT commands cannot specify media quality for IMS        services.    -   Existing AT commands cannot specify whether media data encoding        and media data decoding is to be done by MTs or by TEs.    -   Existing AT commands cannot be used to find out which IMS        services are supported by MTs.    -   Existing AT commands cannot be used to configure media support        for incoming calls.    -   Existing AT commands cannot be used to modify ongoing        communication sessions or communication calls.    -   Existing AT commands cannot be used to control multiple        instances of a particular communication service.    -   Existing AT commands cannot be used to control the media data of        an incoming call.

Various aspects of this disclosure introduce commands, e.g. AT commands,for controlling IMS services that are provided by a mobile termination,whereby the commands allow to specify whether media data are to beencoded and decoded inside or outside the mobile termination and wherebyinstances of an IMS service can be identified.

As will be described in more detail below, various aspects of thisdisclosure may provide one or more of the following effects:

-   -   The type of IMS service can be controlled.    -   Media to be used by IMS services can be specified.    -   Media quality for IMS services can be specified.    -   It can be specified whether media data encoding and decoding is        to be done by one or more MTs or by one or more TEs.    -   It can be determined which IMS services are supported by MTs.    -   Media support for incoming calls can be configured.    -   Ongoing communications can be modified.    -   Multiple instances of a particular service can be controlled.    -   Media of an incoming call can be controlled.    -   The syntax of utilized commands is linear and simple and        therefore easy to parse.

In this disclosure, a mobile termination may be understood as includingmodem hardware including one or more transmitters and one or morereceivers for inter device communications and may be referred to as MT.The MT may be controlled by a so called terminal equipment, which mayinclude hardware configured to interact with an end user and which mayinclude one or more application processors and means for userinteraction through so called AT commands. The terminal equipment mayalso be referred to as TE.

FIG. 1 shows a communication device 100 in accordance with variousaspects of this disclosure. As shown in FIG. 1, the communication device100 may include a message generator 102 configured to generate a message108 in accordance with a command set for using a communication serviceprovided by a communication session setup protocol, e.g. by the SessionInitiation Protocol (SIP). Furthermore, the communication device 100 mayinclude a modem circuit 104 coupled to the message generator 102,wherein the modem circuit may be configured to operate in accordancewith the message 108 generated by the message generator 102. The modemcircuit 104 may be coupled with the message generator 102 by means ofone or more connections 106, such as one or more wireline connectionsand/or one or more wireless connections. By way of example, the one ormore connections may include one or more connection lines such as one ormore bus lines. The message generator 102 may be configured to generatethe message 108 including a command to at least one of control orestablish an Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) service. IMSmay be understood as a standardized Next Generation Networking (NGN)architecture for telecom operators that want to provide mobile and fixedInternet Protocol (IP) based multimedia services. By way of example, itmay use a Voice-over-IP (VoIP) implementation based on a 3GPPstandardized implementation of SIP, and runs over the standard InternetProtocol (IP). Existing phone systems (both packet-switched andcircuit-switched) are supported. The IMS is not only providing newservices, but all the services, current and future, that the Internetprovides. IMS uses open standard IP protocols, defined by the IETF(Internet Engineering Task Force). Thus, a multimedia session betweentwo IMS users, between an IMS user and a user on the Internet, andbetween two users on the Internet may be established using exactly thesame protocol. Moreover, the interfaces for service developers may alsobe based on IP protocols. Thus, illustratively, the message 108 may beexchanged between the message generator 102 and the modem circuit 104 tocontrol the modem circuit 104.

The communication device 100 may be a mobile radio communication deviceor a wireline communication device. Furthermore, the communicationdevice 100 may be included in any electronic device which has thecapability of communicating with the Internet to use IMS, such as e.g. apersonal computer, a laptop, a workstation, a netbook computer, asmartphone, etc.

The message generator 102 may be configured to generate the messagecomprising an identifier to identify the Internet Protocol MultimediaSubsystem service or to identify an instance of the Internet ProtocolMultimedia Subsystem service. Furthermore, the communication device mayfurther include an application processor, wherein the message generatoris configured to generate the message comprising information specifyingwhether media data is at least one of encoded or decoded by theapplication processor of the communication device. The communicationdevice 100 may further include a terminal equipment including theapplication processor. The message generator 102 may be configured togenerate the message including at least one of the following:information specifying a Uniform Resource Identifier; informationspecifying a modification of an established communication connection;information specifying a configuration of a communication service; orinformation controlling an incoming call. The message generator 102 maybe configured to generate the message comprising information specifyinga Uniform Resource Identifier and at least one of a communicationservice parameter or a communication call identifier. The communicationservice parameter may include an Internet Protocol Multimedia SubsystemCommunication Service Identifier (ICSI). Furthermore, the messagegenerator 102 may be configured to generate the message including acommunication service parameter and a media data parameter to specifymedia data and media data properties for the Internet ProtocolMultimedia Subsystem service. The media data parameter may includeSession Description Protocol data. Moreover, the message generator isconfigured to generate the message in accordance with a modem commandset. The message generator may be configured to generate the message inaccordance with the AT command set. The communication session setupprotocol may provide a communication service. The communication sessionsetup protocol may be e.g. the Session Initiation Protocol. The modemcircuit may further include one or more transmitter circuits and/or oneor more receiver circuits. The modem circuit may be configured as amobile termination.

In various aspects of this disclosure, a communication device may beprovided. The communication device may include a message generatorconfigured to generate a message in accordance with a command setprovided for a communication within the communication device and tocontrol a communication service provided for a communication withanother communication device; and a modem circuit coupled to the messagegenerator and configured to operate in accordance with the messagegenerated by the message generator; wherein the message generator isconfigured to generate the message comprising a command to at least oneof control or establish an Internet Protocol based communicationservice.

The message generator may be configured to generate the messageincluding a command to control and/or establish an Internet Protocolbased multimedia communication service. The message generator may beconfigured to generate the message including an identifier to identifythe Internet Protocol based communication service or to identify aninstance of the Internet Protocol based communication service. Thecommunication device may further include an application processor,wherein the message generator may be configured to generate the messageincluding information specifying whether media data is encoded and/ordecoded by the application processor. The application processor may belocated in a terminal equipment. The message generator may be configuredto generate the message including at least one of the following:information specifying a Uniform Resource Identifier; informationspecifying a modification of an established communication connection;information specifying a configuration of a communication service; orinformation controlling an incoming call. The message generator may beconfigured to generate the message including information specifying aUniform Resource Identifier and at least one of a communication serviceparameter or a communication call identifier. The communication serviceparameter may include an Internet Protocol Multimedia SubsystemCommunication Service Identifier (ICSI). Furthermore, the messagegenerator may be configured to generate the message including acommunication service parameter and a media data parameter to specifymedia data and media data properties for the Internet Protocol basedcommunication service. The media data parameter may include SessionDescription Protocol data. The message generator may further beconfigured to generate the message in accordance with a modem commandset. The message generator may further be configured to generate themessage in accordance with the AT command set. The communication sessionsetup protocol may provide the communication service. The communicationsession setup protocol may be e.g. the Session Initiation Protocol. Themodem circuit may further include at least one transmitter circuitand/or at least one receiver circuit. The modem circuit may beconfigured as a mobile termination.

FIG. 2 shows a communication network 200 in accordance with variousaspects of this disclosure, which may include the communication device100, the IMS 202, and one or more other communication devices 204, 206,208. All the communication devices 100, 204, 206, 208 may be coupled tothe IMS 202 to provide or use IMS services by means of one or morewireline connections and/or one or more wireless connections (e.g. viacorrespondingly provided base station(s) and communication componentssuch as Call Session Control Functions (CSFC) (e.g. Proxy Call SessionControl Functions (P-CSFC) and/or Serving Call Session Control Functions(S-CSFC) and/or Interrogating Call Session Control Functions (I-CSFC)).Furthermore, one or more media data servers 210 and/or one or moreapplication servers 212 may be provided in the IMS 202. For acommunication between the communication devices 100, 204, 206, 208 withthe IMS 202 or via the IMS 202, the so called Session InitiationProtocol (SIP) may be used.

Exemplary communication service may include:

-   -   Multimedia communication, e.g. voice and/or video calls;    -   Internet games;    -   Distributed file sharing and shared processing of documents,        etc.

As will be described in more detail below, various aspects of thisdisclosure define commands for a mobile termination for dialing UniformResource Identifiers (URIs), modifying ongoing communication calls,configuring communication services and controlling incomingcommunication calls, whereby the commands allow to specify whether mediadata are to be encoded and decoded inside or outside e.g. theapplication processor, e.g. inside or outside the terminal equipment(e.g. TE) and whereby instances of an IMS service can be identified.Commands for dialing URIs may include one or more service parameters andone or more call-id parameters if a URI parameter is included. This mayallow to specify IMS services to be set up.

Service parameters may include IMS Communication Service Identifiervalues (ICSI values) or other service indicators. ICSI values indicatethe usage of services for which ICSI values exist. Furthermore, commandsfor dialing URIs may include one or more media data parameters if aservice parameter is included. This may allow to specify media data andtheir properties to be used by IMS services to be set up. Media dataparameters may include Session Description Protocol (SDP) media levelsections or other media indicators and media qualities. SDP media levelsections may indicate that the media data are to be encoded and decodedoutside the MT, for example.

Commands for dialing URIs may include a particular action value toindicate that an ongoing communication service is to be modified.

Default media data properties may be specified for particular servicesby a special command.

Call-ids of set up communication calls may be indicated by commandresponses.

Media data and the call-id of an incoming communication call may also beindicated by a special command.

FIG. 3 shows an implementation 300 of the communication device 100 ofFIG. 1 in accordance with various aspects of this disclosure. As shownin FIG. 3, the communication device 300 may be a mobile radiocommunication device such as a mobile phone and may be configured tocommunicate in accordance with one or more Cellular Wide Area radiocommunication technologies (which may include e.g. a Global System forMobile Communications (GSM) radio communication technology, a GeneralPacket Radio Service (GPRS) radio communication technology, an EnhancedData Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) radio communication technology,and/or a Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) radio communicationtechnology (e.g. UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System), FOMA(Freedom of Multimedia Access), 3GPP LTE (Long Term Evolution), 3GPP LTEAdvance (Long Term Evolution Advance)), CDMA2000 (Code division multipleaccess 2000), CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data), Mobitex, 3G (ThirdGeneration), CSD (Circuit Switched Data), HSCSD (High-SpeedCircuit-Switched Data), UMTS (3G) (Universal Mobile TelecommunicationsSystem (Third Generation)), W-CDMA (UMTS) (Wideband Code DivisionMultiple Access (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System)), HSPA(High Speed Packet Access), HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access),HSUPA (High-Speed Uplink Packet Access), HSPA+(High Speed Packet AccessPlus), UMTS-TDD (Universal Mobile TelecommunicationsSystem-Time-Division Duplex), TD-CDMA (Time Division-Code DivisionMultiple Access), TD-CDMA (Time Division-Synchronous Code DivisionMultiple Access), 3GPP Rel. 8 (Pre-4G) (3rd Generation PartnershipProject Release 8 (Pre-4th Generation)), UTRA (UMTS Terrestrial RadioAccess), E-UTRA (Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access), LTE Advanced(4G) (Long Term Evolution Advanced (4th Generation)), cdmaOne (2G),CDMA2000 (3G) (Code division multiple access 2000 (Thrid generation)),EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized or Evolution-Data Only), AMPS (1G)(Advanced Mobile Phone System (1st Generation)), TACS/ETACS (TotalAccess Communication System/Extended Total Access Communication System),D-AMPS (2G) (Digital AMPS (2nd Generation)), PTT (Push-to-talk), MTS(Mobile Telephone System), IMTS (Improved Mobile Telephone System), AMTS(Advanced Mobile Telephone System), OLT (Norwegian for OffentligLandmobil Telefoni, Public Land Mobile Telephony), MTD (Swedishabbreviation for Mobiltelefonisystem D, or Mobile telephony system D),Autotel/PALM (Public Automated Land Mobile), ARP (Finnish forAutoradiopuhelin, “car radio phone”), NMT (Nordic Mobile Telephony),Hicap (High capacity version of NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone)),CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data), Mobitex, DataTAC, iDEN (IntegratedDigital Enhanced Network), PDC (Personal Digital Cellular), CSD (CircuitSwitched Data), PHS (Personal Handy-phone System), WiDEN (WidebandIntegrated Digital Enhanced Network), iBurst, Unlicensed Mobile Access(UMA, also referred to as also referred to as 3GPP Generic AccessNetwork, or GAN standard)).

A first user U1 is using his mobile phone T1 (terminal) 300 as oneimplementation of the communication device 100. The mobile phone 300 mayinclude a mobile termination part MT1 302 and a terminal equipment partTE1 304. The mobile termination part MT1 302 may be configured toprovide modem functionality and the terminal equipment part TE1 304 maybe configured to provide application and user interface functionality.The mobile termination part MT1 302 and the terminal equipment part TE1304 communicate via a terminal adapter TA1 306 through AT commands 308,for example.

FIG. 4 shows a message flow diagram 400 in accordance with variousaspects of this disclosure. The message flow diagram 400 illustrates anMMTel communication call setup and modification. In this example, it isassumed that the first user U1 switches on his mobile phone T1 300(block 402). During the phone's initialization process the terminalequipment part TE1 304 may generate and send the following first ATcommand 404 to the mobile termination part MT1 302:

-   -   +CDU=0.

The first AT command 404 requests information about supported URIschemes from the mobile termination part MT1 302.

The mobile termination part MT1 302 may generate a further message andmay respond the following result 406:

-   -   +CDUT:“sip”, “3gpp-service.ims.icsi.mmtel”.

The result 406 informs the terminal equipment part TE1 304 that themobile termination supports SIP URIs and that the MMTel communicationservice is supported for SIP URI usage.

Furthermore, it is assumed that the first user U1 has defined in mobilephone T1's 300 settings that MMTel calls should use only voicecommunications by default. Therefore, the terminal equipment part TE1304 may generate and send another, e.g. a second AT command 408 to themobile termination part MT1 302:

-   -   +CSMCU=“3gpp-service.ims.icsi.mmtel”,“voice,high-quality”.

This second AT command 408 may instruct the mobile termination part MT1302 to set the default media for the MMTel service to high quality voicemedia. It may also indicate that the voice media encoding and decodingshould be done by the mobile termination part MT1 302 itself.

After the mobile phone T1 300 has been initialized, it is assumed thatthe first user U1 requests to call his friend, a second user U2, viaMMTel (block 410 in FIG. 4). The terminal equipment part TE1 304 maythus generate and send the following third AT command 412 to the mobiletermination part MT1 302:

-   -   +CDU=1,“sip:bob@biloxy.com”,“3gpp-service.ims.icsi.mmtel”,0.

After having received the third AT command 412, the mobile terminationpart MT1 302 may then initiate an MMTel session with the second userU2's mobile phone T2 (not shown) by generating and sending e.g. a SIPINVITE request message to the second user U2's SIP address that has beenprovided with the third AT command 412. The SIP INVITE request messagemay include SDP for high quality voice media that the mobile terminationpart MT1 302 is capable of encoding and decoding.

After the communication call to the second user U2's communicationdevice (e.g. mobile phone) has been set up, the mobile termination partMT1 302 may generate a response 414 to respond the following result tothe terminal equipment part TE1 304:

-   -   +CDUC:“sip:bob@biloxy.com”, “3gpp-service.ims.icsi.mmtel”, 1234,        “voice,high-quality”.

The response 414 informs the terminal equipment part TE1 304 that thecommunication call is being identified by “1234” and high quality voicemedia has been set up with encoding and decoding provided by the mobiletermination part MT1 302.

Furthermore, it is assumed that during the established communicationcall with his friend, e.g. the second user U2, the first user U1 maydecide to add video to the communication call (block 416). The terminalequipment part TE1 304 may thus generate and send the following commandas a fourth AT command 418 to the mobile termination part MT1 302:

-   -   +CDU=2,“sip:bob@biloxy.com”, “3gpp-service.ims.icsi.mmtel”,        1234, “voice,high-quality”, “m=video 49170/2 RTP/AVP 31”.

The fourth AT command 418 requests from the mobile termination part MT1302 to modify the ongoing MMTel call identified by “1234”. Themodification adds video with properties indicated by the provided SDPmedia level section. Since SDP is being provided, the mobile terminationpart MT1 302 may be instructed not to encode and decode the video mediadata. Instead, the video RTP packets may be forwarded to the terminalequipment part TE1 304. The terminal equipment part TE1 304 itself maybe taking care of encoding and decoding of the video media data.

FIG. 5 shows a message flow diagram 500 in accordance with variousaspects of this disclosure. The message flow diagram 500 illustratesreceiving an incoming MMTel call. For this example, the situation of theexample as shown in FIG. 4 is assumed after the initialization of thefirst user U1's mobile phone T1 300.

Furthermore, it is assumed that the first user U1's friend, e.g. thesecond user U2 calls the first user U1 via the IMS multimediacommunication service, e.g. MMTel (see block 502 in FIG. 5). The mobiletermination part MT1 302 may receive a corresponding SIP INVITE requestmessage from the second user U2's mobile phone T2. The SIP INVITErequest message may include SDP for audio and video media data.

Then, the mobile termination part MT1 302 may generate and send thefollowing AT command as a third AT command 504 to the terminal equipmentpart TE1 304:

-   -   +CINU=“sip:bob@biloxy.com”, “3gpp-service.ims.icsi.mmtel”, 5678,        “voice,high-quality”, “m=video 49170/2 RTP/AVP 31”.

The third AT command 504 may inform the terminal equipment part TE1 304that an MMTel communication call has been received from the indicatedSIP address with high quality voice media data and with video mediadata. Since default media for MMTel communication services have been setto “voice,high-quality”, the mobile termination part MT1 302 does notindicate SDP audio media data for encoding and decoding outside of themobile termination part MT1 302, but high quality voice media data to beencoded and decoded by the mobile termination part MT1 302.

Furthermore, the terminal equipment part TE1 304 may indicate theincoming call to the first user U1. The first user U1 does not want toallow the second user U2 to see him via video media data. Therefore, theterminal equipment part TE1 304 may generate and send back the followingAT command as a fourth AT command 506 to the mobile termination part MT1302:

-   -   +CDU=2,“sip:bob@biloxy.com”, “3gpp-service.ims.icsi.mmtel”,        5678, “voice,high-quality”, “m=video 49170/2 RTP/AVP        31<CR><LF>a=recvonly”.

The fourth AT command 506 may instructs the mobile termination part MT1302 to accept the communication call but without sending video mediadata to the second user U2's mobile phone.

In the following, a general description of AT command extensions and ATcommands introduced in accordance with various aspects of thisdisclosure will be provided.

A conventional AT command for dialing URIs has the following structure:

Dial URI +CDU

TABLE 1 +CDU action command syntax Command Possible response(s)+CDU=<action>[,<URI>] [+CDUT: <URI_scheme> [<CR><LF>+CDUT:<URI_scheme>][. . .]] +CDU=?

Description: Execution command can be used to dial a URI or query thesupported URI types.

Editor's note: It is FFS how the type of requested IMS service (e.g.voice or MMTel) and corresponding SDP are indicated.

Defined values

<action>: Integer type

-   -   0 Query supported URI types. Execution command +CDU=0 returns a        line of intermediate result +CDUT: <URI_scheme> for every        supported <URI_scheme>.    -   1 Dial <URI>.

<URI>: string type URI including the prefix specifying the URI type; theURI may include URI parameters; the used character set should be the oneselected with Select TE Character Set +CSCS.

<URI_scheme>: string type. Parameter identifies supported URI scheme.

“sip” Internet Assigned Number Authority (IANA) registry as per RFC 3969[ccc], used with Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), see RFC 3261 [aaa].

“tel” Internet Assigned Number Authority (IANA) registry as per RFC 5341[ddd], used with Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), see RFC 3966 [bbb].

Editor's note: The list of URI-schemes is not complete.

Extended AT command for dialing URIs according to various aspects ofthis disclosure:

+CDU=<action>[,<URI>[,<service>,<call-id>[,<media>][,<media>][ . . . ]]]

<service>: String type. Identifies an IMS service. If the parameterstarts with “3gpp-service.ims.icsi.” then the parameter is the ICSIvalue specified by 3GPP for an IMS service. If the parameter does notstart with “3gpp-service.ims.icsi.” then the parameter indicates aservice for which 3GPP has not specified an ICSI value. For example, theVoLTE (Voice over Long Term Evolution) service might be indicated by thestring “volte” and IMS messaging might be indicated by the string“messaging”.

<call-id>: String type. Identifies an ongoing call. The call-id is to beignored with the <action> value 1. The call-id is to be taken intoaccount only with the <action> value 2 for modifying an ongoing call.

<media>: String type. Defines media. If the parameter starts with “m=”then the string is the media level section of an SDP description and theMT is requested to set up the call with media encoding and decoding tobe done outside the MT. If the parameter does not start with “m=” thenthe string indicates the media type and possibly quality and the MT isrequested to set up the call with media encoding and decoding to be doneby the MT.

Extended AT command response to +CDU=0 according to various aspects ofthis disclosure:

[+CDUT:<URI_scheme>[,<service>][,<service>][ . . . ][<CR><LF>+CDUT:<URI_scheme>[,<service>][,<service>][ . . . ]][ . . . ]]

<service>: Specifies which services are supported by the MT for the URIscheme <URI_scheme>.

New AT command response to +CDU=1 according to various aspects of thisdisclosure:

+CDUC::<URI_scheme>,<service>,<call-id>[,<media>][,<media>][ . . . ]

<call-id>: String type. Identifies the call having been set up by theMT. The call-id may be used for call identification when modifying thecall later.

<media>: Specifies the media of the call having been set up.

New value for <action> for +CDU according to various aspects of thisdisclosure:

2: Modify an existing call. The call to be modified must be identifiedby the call-id received in the +CDUC response to the +CDU request forsetting up the call.

New AT command for incoming call notification according to variousaspects of this disclosure:

+CINU=<URI scheme>,<service>,<call-id>[,<media>][,<media>][ . . . ]

<call-id>: Identifies the incoming call. The call-id may be used forcall identification when modifying the call.

<media>: Specifies the media of the incoming call.

New AT command for configuring default media for a particular serviceaccording to various aspects of this disclosure:

+CSMCU=<service>[,<media>][,<media>][ . . . ]

<service>: Service for which to configure media.

<media>: Specifies the default media for the service <service>. If nomedia are being specified by +CDU then the default media are to be used.The default media may also be used by the MT for incoming calls.

Some alternatives and/or extensions of the above described aspects willbe described in the following.

Instead of ICSI values also other string type values like “messaging”might be used for service identification in AT commands (e.g. for theIMS messaging service).

When negotiating media with the network via SIP the MT may indicate socalled IMS Application Reference Identifiers in accordance with the IMSservice application on the MT.

If +CDU=1 is being used without indicating any service, then a defaultservice may be initiated, e.g. a voice call may be set up. The defaultservice may be specified by sending +CSMC with service indication butwithout media indication.

Call-ids may be based on the time when a call has been requested orreceived. For example call-ids may be chosen to be the time of callrequest or reception.

If call-ids are given by the time of call request or reception thencall-ids may not be indicated to the TE in +CINU commands or +CDUCresponses. In this case, TEs may determine relevant call-ids from theMTs internal clock (which can be queried by +CCLK commands according tothe 3GPP technical specification TS 27.007, “AT command set for UserEquipment (UE)”, V11.1.0, 12/2011).

AT commands for phonebook dialing may be extended in a similar way asthe direct dialing command +CDU as described above.

When requesting a call by sending a +CDU=1 command to the MT a call-idother than 0 may be specified. The specified call-id may be used as aproposed call-id for the requested call.

Other AT command names than the names used above may be used for the newAT commands introduced by the above described aspects.

Call-ids may not be unique over all calls processed by the MT, butinstead may be only unique over all calls with the same URI and serviceparameters.

Call-ids may be unique over all calls processed by the MT. In this case,an ongoing call may be modified by a special AT command whereby the callmay be identified solely by its call-id and not by its URI and serviceidentifier.

Various aspects of the disclosure may enable control of a multitude ofInternet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) services provided by mobileterminations.

One or more of the following may be provided by various aspects of thisdisclosure:

-   -   It may be possible to specify the type of IMS service to be        controlled.    -   It may be possible to specify media to be used by IMS services.    -   It may be possible to specify media quality for IMS services.    -   It may be possible to specify whether media encoding and        decoding is to be done by one or more Mobile Terminations (MT)        or by one or more Terminal Equipments (TE).    -   It may be possible to find out which IMS services are supported        by MTs.    -   It may be possible to configure media support for incoming        communication calls.    -   It may be possible to modify ongoing communication connections        or communication calls.    -   It may be possible to control multiple instances of a particular        IMS service.    -   It may be possible to control the media of an incoming        communication call.    -   The syntax of control commands may be linear and simple.

FIG. 6 shows a flow diagram illustrating a method 600 for operating acommunication device in accordance with various aspects of thisdisclosure. The method 600 may include, in 602, generating a message inaccordance with a command set for using a communication service providedby a communication session setup protocol; and, in 604, controlling amodem circuit in accordance with the generated message; wherein thegenerating the message includes inserting a command to at least one ofcontrol or establish an Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem service.

The generating the message may include inserting an identifier toidentify the Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem service or toidentify an instance of the Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystemservice. Furthermore, the generating the message may include insertinginformation specifying whether media data is to be at least one ofencoded and decoded by an application processor of the communicationdevice. The generating the message may include inserting at least one ofthe following: information specifying a Uniform Resource Identifier;information specifying a modification of an established communicationconnection; information specifying a configuration of a communicationservice; or information controlling an incoming call. The generating themessage may include inserting information specifying a Uniform ResourceIdentifier and at least one of a communication service parameter or acommunication call identifier. The communication service parameter mayinclude an Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem Communication ServiceIdentifier (ICSI). The generating the message may include inserting acommunication service parameter and a media data parameter to specifymedia data and media data properties for the Internet ProtocolMultimedia Subsystem service. The media data parameter may includeSession Description Protocol data. The generating the message mayinclude generating the message in accordance with a modem command set.The generating the message may include generating the message inaccordance with the AT command set. Moreover, the method may furtherinclude providing the communication service by the communication sessionsetup protocol, e.g. the Session Initiation Protocol.

FIG. 7 shows a flow diagram illustrating a method 700 for operating acommunication device in accordance with various aspects of thisdisclosure. The method 700 may include, in 702, generating a message inaccordance with a command set provided for the communication within thecommunication device and to control a communication service provided forcommunication with another communication device, and, in 704,controlling a modem circuit of the communication device in accordancewith the generated message, wherein the generating the message comprisesinserting a command to at least one of control or establish an InternetProtocol based communication service.

The generating the message may include inserting a command to at leastone of control or establish an Internet Protocol based multimediacommunication service. The generating the message may include insertingan identifier to identify the Internet Protocol based communicationservice or to identify an instance of the Internet Protocol basedcommunication service. The generating the message may include insertingan information specifying whether media data is to be at least one ofencoded or decoded by an application processor of the communicationdevice. The generating the message may include inserting at least one ofthe following: information specifying a Uniform Resource Identifier;information specifying a modification of an established communicationconnection; information specifying a configuration of a communicationservice; or information controlling an incoming call. The generating themessage may include inserting an information specifying a UniformResource Identifier and at least one of a communication serviceparameter or a communication call identifier. The communication serviceparameter may include an Internet Protocol Multimedia SubsystemCommunication Service Identifier (ICSI). The generating the message mayinclude inserting a communication service parameter and a media dataparameter to specify media data and media data properties for theInternet Protocol based communication service. The media data parametermay include Session Description Protocol data. The generating themessage may include generating the message in accordance with a modemcommand set. The generating the message may include generating themessage in accordance with the AT command set. The method may furtherinclude providing the communication service including by thecommunication session setup protocol, e.g. the Session InitiationProtocol.

While the invention has been particularly shown and described withreference to specific embodiments, it should be understood by thoseskilled in the art that various changes in form and detail may be madetherein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention asdefined by the appended claims. The scope of the invention is thusindicated by the appended claims and all changes which come within themeaning and range of equivalency of the claims are therefore intended tobe embraced.

1-18. (canceled)
 19. A device in a wireless communications system, thedevice comprising: a Mobile Termination circuit (MT) to provide modemfunctionality for communications with other devices; and a TerminalEquipment circuit (TE) to provide application and user interfacefunctionality, the TE connected to the MT using a Terminal Adaptor (TA)that provides an interface for exchange of attention (AT) commands andAT command responses between the TE and the MT, wherein the TE isconfigured to perform operations comprising: receiving, from the MT, afirst AT command for an incoming multimedia call from a second device,the first AT command indicating one or more types of media to be usedfor the incoming multimedia call; and in response to receiving the firstAT command, sending a second AT command to the MT, the second AT commandincluding instructions to reject at least one type of media of the oneor more types of media to be used for the incoming multimedia call. 20.The device of claim 19, wherein the second AT command includes furtherinstructions to accept the incoming multimedia call with remaining typesof media of the one or more types of media excluding the at least onetype of media.
 21. The device of claim 19, wherein the second AT commandcauses the MT to trigger a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) medianegotiation with the second device to accept, reject, or modify the oneor more types of media to be used for the incoming multimedia call. 22.The device of claim 19, wherein the TE is configured to performoperations further comprising: sending an initial AT command to the MT,the initial AT command requesting information about supported uniformresource identifier (URI) types supported by the MT; and receiving an ATcommand response from the MT in response to the initial AT command, theAT command response including a list of URI types supported by the MT.23. The device of claim 22, wherein the AT command response includes aparameter for each supported URI type.
 24. The device of claim 22,wherein the TE is configured to perform operations further comprising:upon receiving the AT command response from the MT, sending a second ATcommand to the MT, the second AT command indicating (i) a default mediatype to be used for communication sessions, and (ii) whether the defaultmedia type is to be encoded and decoded outside of the MT or inside ofthe MT.
 25. The device of claim 24, wherein the TE is configured toperform operations comprising: encoding and decoding media obtainedduring a communication session when the media is of the default mediatype and when the second AT command indicates that the default mediatype is to be encoded and decoded outside of the MT.
 26. The device ofclaim 24, wherein the MT is configured to perform operations comprising:encoding and decoding media obtained during a communication session whenthe media is of the default media type and when the second AT commandindicates that the default media type is to be encoded and decodedinside of the MT.
 27. The device of claim 19, wherein the deviceincludes a mobile radio communication device, wherein the incomingmultimedia call is one of a voice call, or a video call, and wherein theone or more types of media include at least one of a voice media type ora video media type.